the true story of hansel and gretel by louise murphy

Hansel and Gretel explore the snowy forest around Magda’s hut and admire the wild animals that inhabit it. He does not realize that the children are Jewish and admires Gretel’s blond hair and blue eyes. In Piaski, the children encounter the Major, a Nazi assigned control of the village. She leads them to the village to apply for ration cards so that they can receive allotments of food. Over the next several weeks, Magda obtains false identification papers for Hansel and Gretel. Magda’s grandmother was a “Roma,” or “gypsy,” and Magda carries on many of her customs.

The children learn that residents of Piaski, the nearby village, consider Magda a witch. When Magda next emerges, they follow her back inside, and she does not force them to leave. She performs a ritual to grant the children good luck and then returns to the cabin. An old woman named Magda emerges and says that she cannot give them shelter. Eventually, the children reach an isolated hut.

Hansel crumbles his last slice of bread as they walk in hopes that the Stepmother will follow his trail to find them. The Stepmother suggests that they go by Hansel and Gretel.ġ1-year-old Gretel Cegielski leads Hansel, her 7-year-old brother, through the woods. Before the Stepmother and the Mechanik leave the children, she warns them not to use their real names or otherwise give away their Judaism. The adults, later known as the Mechanik and the Stepmother, decide that they must abandon the children in the forest if any of them hope to survive. The unnamed family consists of a father, his wife, and two children, all fleeing a Polish ghetto. On a cold night, a Jewish family races along a wooded road in the western part of the country with Nazi soldiers in pursuit. German forces control Poland, occupying even its small villages. It is the winter of 1943, and World War II has gripped Europe for more than 4 years.

The true story of hansel and gretel by louise murphy